Episode 127: How James Lindsay and Karl Anderssen Gazed Into The Abyss

PhD scientist James Lindsay (“ConceptualJames”) wanted to expose fellow leftist academics for their culture warring with his famous hoax paper, which blamed penises for climate change. Embraced by the right, he waded into the front lines of the culture war and allowed it to consume him. Last week, the high-profile academic was pronounced dead at a Cracker Barrel in Tennessee after a dispute over meat substitutes turned deadly. (Rest In Power, brother.)

PhD researcher Karl Andersson wanted to get into the head of people who “like” little boys a little too much. He really, really wanted to get into their heads. So much that he – oh, thank God. They took it down. Noticing the right-wing backlash to his violation of social norms, the left instinctively jumps to his aid, opening another front in the culture wars…

He who does battle with monsters…

Fear and Loathing In Cracker Barrel

“Where pork-based and plant-based sausage lovers can breakfast all day in harmony.”

crackerbarrel

A post shared by Cracker Barrel (@crackerbarrel)

Is the Cracker Barrel menu getting 'woke'?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/retail/2022/08/04/cracker-barrel-menu-impossible-sausage-woke/10242596002/

Jimmy Concepts

The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct: A Sokal-Style Hoax on Gender Studies

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/conceptual-penis-social-contruct-sokal-style-hoax-on-gender-studies/

Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship

https://areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/academic-grievance-studies-and-the-corruption-of-scholarship/

Is a Portland Professor Being Railroaded by His University for Criticizing Social-Justice Research?

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/01/is-peter-boghossian-getting-railroaded-for-his-hoax.html

James Lindsay trying to start a fight with the Auschwitz Museum on Twitter, because that’s what normal people do

Dylan Burns 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈 @DylanBurns1776

James Lindsay is currently arguing with the Auschwitz Memorial like all normal people do

Lindsay blatantly declaring war on the gays without congressional authorization

Anthony L. Fisher @anthonyLfisher

I'm not on Twitter a lot these days, so I honestly don't know—but have any of the prominent heterodox gay writers that promoted this guy as an important, serious, intellectual offered even a "Woops, my bad" on their endorsement?

Lindsay describing President Biden as having been “installed”

Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere

Almost 300 thousand accounts follow a person who believes Biden was installed rather than democratically elected.

Lindsay saying someone called “Joe McCarthy” “didn’t go nearly far enough”. Apparently he’s from the Red Scare but I don’t remember him from any of their episodes so idk

Anthony L. Fisher @anthonyLfisher

"Real McCarthyism has never been tried"

Interview with Lindsay on his Twitter permaban

Lindsay attempts to tweetstorm IRL (WARNING: cringe)

Berny Belvedere @bernybelvedere

I felt secondhand embarrassment watching this.

Has Science Gone Too Far? (Yes.)

(What remains of) the article

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14687941221096600

Tories are not happy

Neil O'Brien MP @NeilDotObrien

Why should hard-working taxpayers in my constituency have to pay for an academic to write about his experiences masturbating to Japanese porn? The non-STEM side of higher education is just much too big, producing too much that is not socially useful. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Seeing the right-wing backlash, leftists begin reflexively defending it

Circling the wagons

The Perils of 180ism

The Perils of 180ism

The 2012 Vice article mentioned by Richie

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xdpb7k/breaking-boy-news

Image: “Surreal illustration of a man standing on the edge of an abyss” via Getty